Front Matter
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionForewordPrefaceThe Steps

The people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for their direct assistance is almost endless but first I would like to thank someone who wasn't directly involved, my college English professor, Margaret Starker. She taught me, in contradiction to everything I already knew, that I had an ability to communicate ideas through writing.

I cannot sufficiently express the gratitude I feel toward friends and family for their encouragement and assistance. Too numerous to mention them all, I would like to single out my sister Claire. She gave me great encouragement and spent countless hours reading and helping me revise the manuscript. I would also like to thank the many people who read earlier copies of the manuscript and offered criticism and encouragement.

As in any non-fiction work, the ideas expressed are, at the very least, based on the ideas of others. In this respect, I must express gratitude to the people whose names are found in Appendix A, most particularly, Alice Miller and Stanton Peele. Many of their ideas, although perhaps in a different context, will be found within this text.

Foreword by Alice Miller

Ken Ragge’s book will be a shock to many people because it reveals facts they would rather not know. But the shock, I have no doubt, will be a healthy one. Facing facts and giving up illusions can be extremely painful but, in the long run, it is always healthy. In contrast to depression, this pain has a start and an end. Whether or not a person is ready to go through this process of grieving yet does not depend only on a book, of course, but his own situation. The right information at the right time can be life-saving. The same information given at the wrong time will be without effect. It will have to wait. I sometimes get letters saying: “I bought your book some years ago because it was recommended to me, but I thought it rather boring and stopped reading after a few pages. Last night, however, I read it through and I felt that you must have written it just for me …”

More Revealed is an offer, an invitation. It is an invitation to open your eyes, to look around, to verify information, to ask questions, to refuse to be fooled, and to slowly become aware of the prison of illusions that suffocates your life. Unlike indoctrination and brainwashing, an invitation an invitation gives you full freedom to accept it or not. You can even postpone your decision for months or years. But once you decide to accept the invitation, to leave the prison and to face facts, you have made a new discovery, the discovery of freedom. And in the light of this discovery, the wall of illusions bound tightly to obedience crumbles, giving space to your real, never-before-experienced life.

Alice Miller
September, 1992

Preface

The bulk of the sources used in describing AA and its forerunner, the Oxford Group, are from AA and Oxford Group literature. In my analysis of the dynamics of AA I have made every effort to be fair. There is great variation by geographical region in meeting format, readings and the language and slogans used. Every effort has been made to stay as close as possible to the original, universal sources of AA doctrine; the official literature, most particularly the "Big Book" and "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

Since this is not a scientific work per se, usually only one study, and at most two, are used to back up a point. Other sources of documentation, and more thorough works on the various areas of the text, are listed in Appendix D. The studies cited here are generally the most methodologically sound, the first, and/or the most frequently cited.

In the chapter "What is addiction?," although the word "definition" is used, the attempt is to be expository rather than definitive.

In some of the sections on the origin of addictions, few sources are listed. The models used are purely for the context of addiction, and therefore no distinction is made between, for example, over-learned behavior and other learning, and between emotions and feelings. While the distinctions in language are extremely important in the laboratory, "a sense of self-efficacy" translates much better to the rest of us as "self-confidence" or a "can do attitude." Hopefully, an easily understandable and enlightening view of addiction has been presented.

The Steps

Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step Two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step Six: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step Seven: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step Nine: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step Twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.